The LEVIS project is pleased to announce the publication of its white paper, “Advancing Lightweight Materials for Sustainable Electric Vehicles: Policy Recommendations from the LEVIS Project” This comprehensive document provides targeted policy recommendations aimed at accelerating the integration of advanced lightweight materials into the production of sustainable electric vehicles (EVs).
Grounded in the successes and insights of the LEVIS project, the white paper outlines significant environmental, economic, and technological benefits that advanced lightweight materials offer. It identifies key barriers, such as high costs, technological gaps, and market resistance, that hinder wider adoption. The paper advocates for comprehensive policy support, including financial incentives, enhanced R&D funding, and strategic regulatory changes, to facilitate this critical transition.
The white paper highlights several important aspects of the project. LEVIS demonstrated the practicality of lightweighting through material replacement in three real-case demonstrators: a suspension control arm, battery holding set, and cross car beam. These efforts achieved an average weight reduction of 33% and introduced novel one-shot production techniques to reduce costs and enhance efficiency. Environmentally, the project implemented strategies guided by eco-design principles to minimize environmental impact across all phases of product life. This included achieving up to 85% recyclability of multi-material components and reducing global warming potential by at least 23% at the component level compared to conventional benchmarks. Economically, LEVIS technologies showed broad market applicability, with the potential of being adapted to over 60% of vehicle chassis and body components, suggesting significant industry-wide benefits.
The paper calls for policy measures to support the adoption of advanced lightweight materials in EVs. These measures include financial incentives to reduce the cost burden on manufacturers, increased R&D funding to encourage advancements in early-stage technologies, regulatory frameworks to mandate or incentivize the use of sustainable materials, awareness campaigns to highlight the long-term benefits of these materials, and strategies to stimulate market demand through economic incentives.
Read the full white paper here.